Australia batter Marnus Labuschagne opened up on the friendly banter he was involved in with Virat Kohli on Day 1 of the opening Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test against India in Nagpur.

Labuschagne arrived in the middle after the dismissal of Usman Khawaja in the second over. While other Aussie batters found it tough to get going, Labuschagne looked in a good rhythm and returned as a top scorer for the visitors with 49.  

In the first ball of the sixth over, however, Labuschagne was beaten by a delivery from Ravindra Jadeja and had a smile on his face. Kohli, who was fielding in the slip cordon, told him that he should have shouldered his arms to the delivery.

Later, Labuschagne played a stunning cover drive and Kohli lauded him by watching the replay.

“Yeah, it’s always nice when Virat thinks you have played a decent shot there. There are a few shots I definitely learned from him,” Labuschagne was quoted as saying in an interview on Sen Cricket.

Talking about the opening day, India rode on Ravindra Jadeja’s five-wicket haul (5/47) to bundle out the visitors for just 177 in the first innings.

At the close of play, the hosts were on 77/1, trailing Australia by 100 runs. While KL Rahul was dismissed for 20, skipper Rohit Sharma stayed unbeaten on 56.

“We are here to win the series, so we are going to make sure that we work as hard as we possibly can and fight our way back into the match by putting up a special performance with the bat,” Labuschagne stated.

He praised debutant off-spinner Todd Murphy, who took the prized scalp of Rahul. Murphy had figures of 7-0-13-1 at stumps on Day 1.

“Just what I thought he was going to do. His temperament as a person gave me a lot of confidence coming into this game. His skills are high, he’s got the changes and angles. He has got the craft. He looks like a special talent and it’s nice to see him do well,” Labuschagne remarked.